Madeleine Clews

Madeleine Clews is an Adjunct Research Fellow at the School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia, and a current PhD candidate specializing in historical sociolinguistics with a focus on Western Australian English development.

Her academic qualifications include:

• B.A. Honours in English, University of Saskatchewan (1983)
• Graduate Diploma in Primary Health Care Research & Evaluation, The University of Western Australia (1999)
• CELTA in TESOL, Melbourne Training Associates (2016)

Clews' research centers on post-colonial Englishes, particularly the historical evolution of Australian English in Western Australia. Her work examines phonological variation, lexical development, and Aboriginal English influences within colonial contexts. She combines historical sociolinguistic methods with corpus analysis to investigate how settler communities shaped regional dialects, while maintaining expertise in ESOL teaching through her CELTA certification and practical experience at UWA's Centre for English Language Teaching.

Her publication record (2020-2025) reveals consistent focus on Western Australian English formation, analyzing phonological shifts, lexical borrowings, and Aboriginal language influences through historical documents and corpus linguistics. Key themes include nineteenth-century dialect development, bicultural language contact, and the indigenization processes in Australian English.

Her research recognition includes:

• Susan Kaldor Scholarship (2024)
• UWA Grand Challenges - Making a Difference grant (2022)

Clews secured the UWA Grand Challenges grant for interdisciplinary work addressing cultural diversity in educational contexts. While currently a PhD candidate without formal advisees, her teaching role at UWA's Centre for English Language Teaching involves direct student mentorship in research methodologies and academic skills development.